How to handle .zip files

This is a new addition to the guide, in response to all of the people having trouble with the .zip files they are uploading to and downloading from our Torchlight Mods Database. Hopefully this will help you solve some of the problems that have been reported to me.

There are a LARGE number of factors that contribute to sharing .zip files. Probably the biggest factor is what program you are using to create and extract the files. Everyone is using different versions of different software to compress and decompress the files. Here are a few tips for making sure you are ready for mod sharing:

1- Get a fresh version of software that is made specifically to handle this kind of file compression. Some free examples are:

• 7-zip is a free, open source program for windows.
• WinRar is a popular shareware program for all Operating Systems
• WinZip is another popular program with a trial for Windows
• I do NOT suggest using your native Extraction function that is built into Windows, as it is not kept up to date and often incorrectly reports zip files as being corrupted.

2- Make sure your browser is up-to-date. This is important, as some versions of some browsers may cause problems when downloading files from our file system. Here is a list of common browsers and their homepages:

• Internet Explorer - NOTE: IE8 on Windows 7 has had some reports of a strange error involving zip files creating duplicates within the download. More information can be found on this forum thread.
• Firefox - The most popular browser for users visiting our site, according to our site statistics.
• Google Chrome - Another quality browser, which you can even install on computers even if you don't have admin-access (useful for people using a work computer that is still using IE6).
• Safari - The Apple browser that isn't just for people on Macs anymore.
• Opera - Another browser gaining in popularity lately, especially on mobile devices.

If you have checked to make sure you are using the latest version of your browser and zip program as suggested above, and you are still having problems extracting the zip file, then it is possible that the file was corrupted during creation, or during upload. Try leaving a comment on the file's comment page, to see if others are having the same problem. If it's not just you, the original author needs to re-upload a fresh copy of the file.

If you STILL are having problems after all of this, try sending an e-mail my way and we can try to troubleshoot it out for you.

One last, very very VERY important thing to remember when handling .zip files: ALWAYS SCAN YOUR FILES FOR VIRUSES! Zip files are incredibly easy to hide a virus in. If you don't have a paid-for virus scanner or security suite, I suggest downloading Avast Antivirus. The home edition is completely free and is kept up to date with updated frequently.